Methods and systems for displaying a countdown alert for children

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for creating countdown animations. The countdown animations may alert children that they are approaching their viewing limits, wherein the viewing limits are set by parents and/or guardians. A method may include generating a countdown of an amount of time remaining in a user selected period of time for accessing media content. The method may include identifying a character of a plurality of characters based on a user criterion. The method may include searching a database of a plurality of countdown animations to select a countdown animation associated with the identified character. The method may include generating for display the selected countdown animation simultaneously with the media content.

BACKGROUND

Children often wish to view more television than parents and/orguardians feel comfortable with. Parents and/or guardians may wish torestrict the children's screen time in order to make sure children haveenough time to complete their homework, engage in physical activities,finish their chores, spend mealtime with their families, and pursuetheir hobbies.

However, children may become upset when parents and/or guardiansrestrict their access to the television because such restriction mayseem sudden and unfair to the children. Parents and/or guardians maywant an effective method of imposing viewing limits on their children'sscreen time without upsetting their children.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are disclosed herein for an effectivemethod of imposing viewing limits on a child's screen time withoutupsetting the child. Specifically, a media guidance application maycreate custom countdown animations featuring a character enjoyed by thechild. By using the character to communicate the viewing limits, themedia guidance application imposes the viewing limit in a lessconfrontational format. The media guidance application may generate fordisplay countdown animations on user devices used by children to alertthe children that they are approaching their viewing limits. Viewinglimits may have been set by parents and/or guardians to restrict howlong children can access media content and/or media devices. In someaspects, a method may include the media guidance application generatinga countdown of the amount of time remaining in a user selected period oftime for accessing media content. The user selected period of time foraccessing media content may be a viewing limit set by parents and/orguardians. For example, the user selected period of time for accessingmedia content may be one hour per day. The countdown may measure theamount of time remaining in the viewing limit. The method may includethe media guidance application identifying a character of a plurality ofcharacters based on a user criterion. The user criterion may be one ofan attribute of a user profile, an identifier of the media content, oran attribute of previously entered user preferences. For example, themedia guidance application may identify the character “Dora” because auser is currently watching the cartoon program “Dora the Explorer.” Themethod may include the media guidance application searching a databaseof a plurality of countdown animations to select a countdown animationassociated with the identified character. For example, the mediaguidance application may select a countdown animation associated with“Dora”. The method may include the media guidance application generatingfor display the selected countdown animation simultaneously with themedia content. The media guidance application may generate for displaythe countdown animation as an overlay on the media content, side-by-sidewith the media content, or simultaneously with a soundtrack associatedwith the selected countdown animation. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display a countdown animation associatedwith the character “Dora” as an overlay on the cartoon program “Dora.”

In some embodiments, the method may include the media guidanceapplication generating for display a countdown of the amount of timeremaining in the user selected period. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display a countdown from 03:00 to 00:00between the time when three minutes remain in the viewing limit and notime remains in the viewing limit.

In some embodiments, the method may include the media guidanceapplication identifying the character by comparing an attributeassociated with each character of the plurality of characters to theuser criterion, and selecting the character of the plurality ofcharacters associated with an attribute matching the user criterion. Forexample, the media guidance application may compare the user criterionof “Dora the Explorer” to attributes of each animation in a database,and select the character “Dora” because it has a matching attribute of“Dora the Explorer.” In some embodiments, the method may include themedia guidance application identifying the character by searching usercriteria associated with each of previously selected characters of theplurality of characters, and selecting the character of the previouslyselected characters associated with an attribute matching the usercriterion. For example, the media guidance application may havepreviously selected the character “Dora” in association with the usercriterion “Dora the Explorer,” and stored this association in a cache.The media guidance application may select the character “Dora” again inassociation with the user criterion “Dora the Explorer” based on theinformation stored in the cache.

In some embodiments, the method may include the media guidanceapplication performing a user-selected action at an end of the countdownof the amount of time remaining in the user selected period of time. Forexample, when the countdown reaches zero, the media guidance applicationmay generate for display an alert box with a reminder such as “MealTime,” “Homework Time,” or “Time to turn off TV.” In another example,when the countdown reaches zero, the media guidance application may lockthe media content and generate for display a parental control lockscreen that requires a parental control code to be entered to unlock thescreen. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may lock theuser device instead of, or in addition to, the media content.

In some embodiments, the method may include comparing the countdown ofthe amount of time to a threshold time, and generating for display thecountdown animation when the countdown of the amount of time is lessthan the threshold time. For example, if the countdown of the amount oftime is 11 minutes, and the threshold time is 10 minutes, the mediaguidance application may not generate for display any countdownanimation. In another example, if the countdown of the amount of time is9 minutes, and the threshold time is 10 minutes, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display the countdown animation, to givethe children, at most, a ten minute warning that their viewing limit isgoing to be reached.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by amedia guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thisdisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen generatedby a media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments ofthis disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative countdown animation screen in accordancewith some embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows an illustrative alert box screen to be displayed aftercountdown value has reached zero in accordance with some embodiments ofthis disclosure;

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary process for generating a countdown of theamount of time remaining in a user selected period of time for accessingmedia content in accordance with some embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary process for identifying a character of aplurality of characters based on a user criterion in accordance withsome embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary process for searching a database of aplurality of countdown animations to select a countdown animationassociated with the identified character in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary process for generating for display theselected countdown animation simultaneously with the media content inaccordance with some embodiments of this disclosure; and

FIG. 11 shows an exemplary process for creating countdown animations inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Children may become upset when they feel their access to television oranother similar media device has been suddenly restricted. However, theymay react better to viewing limits if they receive sufficient advancewarning that they are reaching their viewing limits. Also, parentsand/or guardians may appreciate methods and systems for imposing viewinglimits that does not upset their children and can be easily and reliablyapplied. The methods and systems described in this disclosure may beimplemented by a media guidance application implemented on controlcircuitry 304, and other components as described in relation to FIG. 3.

As referred to herein, “children” refers to a person or group of peoplefor whom viewing limits have been set. As referred to herein, “parents”and/or “guardians” refers to a person or group of people who have setviewing limits for children. As referred to herein, “viewing limits”refer to the total amount of time children are allowed to access mediacontent and/or media devices such as user television equipment 402, usercomputer equipment 404, or wireless user communication device 406. Insome embodiments, viewing limits may be measured at a single device. Forexample, parents may set viewing limits at a television to be one hourper day. In some embodiments, parents may set viewing limits acrossdevices. For example, parents may set viewing limits for a certain childto be two hours per day maximum, across devices such as computers,televisions, gaming consoles, and/or music players. Viewing limits maybe set in terms such as minutes per day, hours per day, minutes perdevice, or hours per month.

In some embodiments, countdown animations may be used to inform childrenthat their viewing limits are being reached. These countdown animationsmay include animations of characters that children are familiar with,which may cause the children to feel less upset about reaching theirviewing limit. As referred to herein, characters include cartooncharacters, television show characters, objects, and people that areused as a pictorial element of a countdown.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided inprogram information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 310may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response toanother action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to another action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative countdown animation screen incorporatingembodiments of this disclosure. Countdown animation screen 500 may bedisplayed on any of user television equipment 402, user computerequipment 404, or wireless user communications device 406 using display312. In some embodiments, countdown animation screen 500 may beaccompanied by a soundtrack output using speakers 314.

Countdown animation screen 500 may include character 502. As shown inFIG. 5, character 502 is a flower. Character 502 may be animated. Forexample, the flower of character 502 may spin, change in size, change incolor, or display a blooming animation by changing from a bud to aflower. In some embodiments, character 502 may comprise a loopinganimation. In some embodiments, character 502 may be animated for apreset amount of time and then become a still picture.

Countdown animation screen 500 may include text 504. Text 504 mayinclude a reason for the countdown. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, themedia guidance application may generate for display countdown animationscreen 500 to inform children that their meal time is approaching. Themedia guidance application may receive text 504 entered by parentsand/or guardians when they enter their user preferences for countdownanimation screen 500. In some embodiments, text 504 may be animated. Forexample, text 504 may spin, move as a marquee, float, or change colors.

Countdown animation screen 500 may include countdown value 506.Countdown value 506 may be represented in formats such as dd:hh:mm:ss,hh:mm:ss, or mm:ss. As shown in FIG. 5, countdown value 506 indicatesthat three minutes and thirty-one seconds of the viewing limit areremaining. The media guidance application may update countdown value 506as the time remaining changes until the viewing limit is reached. Insome embodiments, character 502 may change its animation as countdownvalue 506 changes. For example, character 502 may spin slowly ifcountdown value 506 is more than a minute, but spin fast if countdownvalue 506 is less than or equal to a minute.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay character 502, text 504, and countdown value 506 as an overlayon the media content being displayed on countdown animation screen 500.In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay character 502, text 504, and countdown value 506 alongside themedia content.

In some embodiments, after countdown value 506 reaches 0, the mediadevices of the children turn off. In some embodiments, after countdownvalue 506 reaches 0, parents receive a notification on one of usertelevision equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or wireless usercommunications device 406 that their children have reached their viewinglimits. In some embodiments, after countdown value 506 reaches 0, thesoundtrack being output through speakers 314 changes. In someembodiments, after countdown value 506 reaches zero, an alert box isdisplayed as described in relation to FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 shows an illustrative alert box screen 600 to be displayed aftercountdown value 506 has reached zero, incorporating embodiments of thisdisclosure. In some embodiments, alert box 602 may only be displayed onthe media device most recently accessed by the children. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may generate for displayalert box 602 on user television equipment 402, user computer equipment404, and wireless user communications device 406.

In some embodiments, alert 602 box may include text. For example, alertbox 602 may include default text such as “You cannot continue watching.”In some embodiments, alert box 602 may include text related to text 504.For example, alert box 602 may include text such as “You cannot continuewatching. It is mealtime.” In some embodiments, media content may bepaused and the media guidance application may generate for display alertbox 602 overlaid on the paused media content. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may generate for display alert box 602 totake up all space available on display 312.

In some embodiments, alert box 602 may include an option to enter aparental control code (also referred to as parental code). Controlcircuitry 304 may generate for display the option to enter a parentalcontrol code based on user preferences. If a user correctly enters inthe parental control code using user input interface 310, the user maybe allowed to access the media content again. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may reset the viewing limits if a correctparental control code is entered.

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary process 700 for generating a countdown of theamount of time remaining in a user selected period of time for accessingmedia content incorporating embodiments of this disclosure. Process 700may also be used to generate a countdown of the amount of time remainingin a user selected period of time for accessing one or more mediadevices.

At block 702, control circuitry 304 retrieves, using storage circuitry308, a current total time spent accessing media content today. Thecurrent total time spent may be represented using any measure of time,such as seconds, minutes, or hours. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 304 may retrieve time spent accessing media devices. In someembodiments, control circuitry 304 may retrieve time spent accessingmedia content or media devices over more than one day, or less than oneday, based on the viewing limits. For example, if parents and/orguardians set viewing limits that children are allowed to access mediadevices for six hours every week, control circuitry 304 may retrieve thecurrent total time spent accessing media devices this week.

At block 704, control circuitry 304 retrieves the start time ofaccessing media content. The media content may refer to the currentlyaccessed media content. For example, if a child began accessing thecurrently-watched cartoon show at 7:02am, control circuitry 304 mayretrieve a start time of 7:02am. In some embodiments, the currentlyaccessed media content may be a movie, television show, computer game,video game, music, or book.

At block 702, control circuitry 304 retrieves a present time. In someembodiments, control circuitry 304 retrieves a present time using aninternal clock. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 retrieves apresent time from an external source, such as time.gov, usingcommunications network 414. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304may store the retrieved first time and present time in registers toeasily perform computations with them in block 708.

At block 708, control circuitry 304 computes the time spent accessingthe current media content by finding the difference between the presenttime and the first time. For example, control circuitry 304 maydetermine that the present time is 7:15 am and the first time is 7:02am. Control circuitry may subtract the first time from the present timeto determine that the time spent accessing the current media content is13 minutes. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may compute thedifference in other units of time, such as seconds or hours.

At block 710, control circuitry 304 adds the time spent accessing thecurrent media content to the current total. For example, controlcircuitry 304 may determine that the viewing limits set by parentsand/or guardians are one hour per day. Control circuitry 304 mayretrieve, at block 702, a current total time spent accessing mediacontent today: 33 minutes. Control circuitry 304 may further computethat time spent accessing the current media content is 13 minutes.Control circuitry 304 may add the two time durations to compute a resultof 46 minutes.

At block 712, control circuitry 304 determines whether the current mediacontent has ended. For example, if the media content is a broadcasttelevision program, the media content may end when its scheduledbroadcast time is over. In another example, if the media content isvideo-on-demand, it may end once the user has paused or stopped itsplayback. If control circuitry 304 determines that the current mediacontent has ended, process 700 proceeds to block 716. If controlcircuitry 304 determines that the current media content has not ended,process 700 proceeds to block 714.

At block 714, control circuitry 304 computes a difference between thesum of the current total time and time spent accessing the current mediacontent, and the user selected period of time. The user selected periodof time may be the viewing limits set by parents and/or guardians. Forexample, control circuitry 304 may compute a difference between a sum ofthe current total time and time spent accessing the current mediacontent (46 minutes) and the user selected period of time (60) todetermine the difference is 14 minutes. The difference may represent thevalue of the countdown.

At block 716, control circuitry 304 saves, using storage circuitry 308,the sum of the current total time and time spent accessing the currentmedia content. Control circuitry 304 may store this new value to replacethe value retrieved in block 702. In a next iteration of process 700,control circuitry 304 may retrieve this newly stored value as thecurrent total time spent accessing media content today.

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary process 800 for identifying a character of aplurality of characters based on a user criterion incorporatingembodiments of the present disclosure. At block 802, control circuitry304 selects, from storage circuitry 308, a user criterion based on anyinformation such as one of the attributes of a user profile, anidentifier of media content, or an attribute of previously entered userpreferences.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select the user criterionfrom a user profile. The user profile may be any collection of userinformation including both information provided by the user andinformation collected by the media guidance application. For example,the user profile may store information about media content the user hasmarked as a favorite, a user's demographics, a user's scheduled mediarecordings, or a user's favorite genres. The media guidance applicationmay determine the user criterion using any of this information. Ifcontrol circuitry 304 retrieves a user profile that includes informationthat a user's favorite genre is “romance,” then the user criterion usedto identify the character may be “romance.” In some embodiments,information in the user profile is ranked in order of importance, basedon a predetermined ranking. Control circuitry 304 may select the usercriterion to be the most important information in the user profile. Forexample, a user profile may include information that a user likescartoons, and that the user is between 21-49 years old. Controlcircuitry 304 may give the first information higher priority in the userprofile than the second, and, hence, control circuitry 304 may determinethat the user criterion is that the user likes cartoons.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select the user criterionfrom an identifier of the media content. The identifier of the mediacontent may be an identifier of currently accessed media content. Forexample, if a user is watching a cartoon show “Dora the Explorer,” theuser criterion may be an identifier of the cartoon show “Dora theExplorer.” In some embodiments, the identifier of the media content maybe an identifier of previously accessed media content. For example, if auser previously watched a cartoon show “Scooby Doo,” the user criterionmay be an identifier of the cartoon show “Scooby Doo.” Accessing mediacontent may include watching, recording, purchasing, or looking atinformation about media content. Media content access may be trackedacross multiple devices associated with the children and their parentsand/or guardians. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may givemore recently watched media content a higher priority than media contentthat has not been recently watched. Hence, if control circuitry 304determines that a user is watching “Dora the Explorer” and previouslywatched “Scooby Doo,” control circuitry 304 may choose the usercriterion to be an identifier of “Dora the Explorer.” In someembodiments, control circuitry 304 may use only media content given aparental control rating appropriate for children to determine the usercriterion.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select the user criterionfrom an attribute of a previously entered user preference. For example,control circuitry 304 may have received user preferences, using userinput interface 310, from parents and/or guardians when they set up theviewing limits. The user preferences may include attributes such aswhich television shows should be used to generate countdown animations.For example, user preferences may state that the cartoon character“Mickey Mouse” should be used to generate countdown animations. Controlcircuitry 304 may use “Mickey Mouse” as the user criterion.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select the user criterionfrom a list of frequently accessed media content. Storage circuitry 308may include a list of frequently accessed media content that is updatedevery time a user watches, records, purchases, looks at informationabout, or otherwise accesses media content on any of user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or wireless usercommunications device 406. Control circuitry 304 may process this listperiodically to change the ranking of the media content in the list suchthat more frequently accessed media content is ranked higher than lessfrequently accessed media content. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 304 may prune the list by removing the less frequentlyaccessed media content from the list. Control circuitry 304 may choose ahighly ranked media asset from this list as the user criterion. Forexample, control circuitry 304 may determine a child watches “Dora theExplorer” every day at 5:00 pm, and hence rank “Dora the Explorer”highly in the list of frequently accessed media content stored usingstorage circuitry 308. Control circuitry 304 may select “Dora theExplorer” as the user criterion based on its high rank in the list offrequently accessed media content.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select the user criterionbased on a time of day. For example, control circuitry 304 may use itsinternal clock to determine the current time is “morning,” and henceselect “energetic” to be the user criterion. In another example, controlcircuitry 304 may use its internal clock to determine the current timeis “night,” and hence select “sleepy” to be the user criterion. This mayallow children to see energetic animations that increate theirexcitement when they are going to school, and see sleepy animations thatlet them know bedtime is coming up when it's time for them to sleep. Alookup table with associations between different times of the days andassociated attributes to be used as the user criterion may be storedusing storage circuitry 308. Similarly, the lookup table may also store,using storage circuitry 308, associations between the different seasonsor months and associated attributes to be used as the user criterion.For example, control circuitry 304 may use an internal calendar todetermine the current month is “June” and hence select “warm” as theuser criterion using the lookup table. In another example, controlcircuitry 304 may use an internal calendar to determine the currentseason is “winter” and hence select “snow” as the user criterion.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select the user criterionbased on the alert text provided by the parents and/or guardians throughuser input interface 310. Control circuitry 304 may parse the alert textto select words or phrases that are used as the user criterion. Forexample, control circuitry 304 may receive, from user input interface310, the alert text “Meal Time,” entered by parents and/or guardians.Control circuitry 304 may parse the received alert text to select theuser criterion “meal.” Other similar user criteria may include“homework” from the alert text “Homework Time,” “bed” from the alerttext “Bedtime,” and “play” from the alert text “Time to go outside toplay.”

In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select the user criterionusing the parental control settings. By doing so, control circuitry 304may be able to ensure that only characters and animations appropriatefor children are identified. Parental control settings may be set byparents and/or guardians using user input interface 310, to restrictmedia content access for children. Parental control settings may bestored in storage circuitry 308. Parental control settings may becommunicated to and shared among multiple devices using communicationsnetwork 414. For example, control circuitry 304 may retrieve, usingstorage circuitry 308, parental control settings that state access tomedia content given a rating of higher than “PG” (parental guidancesuggested) should be restricted unless a parental code is entered.Control circuitry 304 may select the parental control setting “PG” touse as the user criterion.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select a user criterionbased on advertiser preferences. Advertisers may pay to ensure they canprovide advertisement criterion to be used as user criterion in process800. Control circuitry 304 may receive, through communications network414, a data packet including an advertisement criterion to be used asuser criterion and a period of time. Control circuitry 304 may use theadvertisement criterion as the user criterion when process 800 isexecuted for the received period of time. For example, control circuitry304 may receive, through the Internet, a data packet including anadvertisement criterion “Pepsi” and a period of time “3 hours.” Controlcircuitry 304 may store this data packet using storage circuitry 308. Ifprocess 800 is executed in the next three hours, control circuitry 304select “Pepsi” to use as the user criterion.

In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may use viewing data or userprofiles from multiple devices to select the user criterion. In someembodiments, control circuitry 304 may execute process 800 using morethan one user criterion. For example, control circuitry 304 may executeprocess 800 using user criterion “Dora the Explorer” based on previouslyaccessed media content, and user criterion “PG” based on parentalcontrol settings.

At block 804, control circuitry 304 determines whether the usercriterion is in a cache stored using storage circuitry 308. The cachemay include a list of user criteria associated with respectivecharacters. For example, control circuitry 304 may have stored thecharacters found when process 800 was executed previously in the cache.The cache may have a limited size. For example, the cache may onlyinclude five user criteria and five associated characters. In someembodiments, the cache may be stored locally using storage circuitry 308to enable quick retrieval. If control circuitry 304 determines the usercriterion is one of the user criteria in the cache, process 800 proceedsto block 806. Otherwise, process 800 proceeds to block 808.

At block 806, control circuitry 304 selects the character matching thepreviously selected character for the user criterion. For example, thecache may include information that the user criterion “Dora theExplorer” is associated with character “Dora” and “Scooby Doo” isassociated with character “Scooby”. Control circuitry 304 may havecreated these associations because character “Dora” was selected in aprevious iteration of process 800 when “Dora the Explorer” was the usercriterion, and character “Scooby” was selected in a previous iterationof process 800 when “Scooby Doo” was the user criterion.

Control circuitry 304 may have selected the user criterion “Dora theExplorer” at block 802. Control circuitry 304 may have determined that“Dora the Explorer” is in the cache at block 804. Control circuitry 306may determine that user criterion “Dora the Explorer” is associated withcharacter “Dora” in the cache, and hence select character “Dora” in thecurrent iteration of process 800.

At block 808, control circuitry 304 compares the user criterion toattributes of all characters in a database. In some embodiments, thedatabase may be stored in a remote location such as media content source416 or media guidance data source 418 and accessed throughcommunications network 414. In some embodiments, the database may bestored locally using storage circuitry 308. Control circuitry 304 mayperform the comparison by sequentially comparing the user criterion toeach attribute associated with each character in the database until amatch is found. When a match is found, process 800 proceeds to block810.

At block 810, control circuitry 304 selects the character found at block808, with an attribute matching the user criterion. In some embodiments,control circuitry 304 may remove the oldest entry in the cache, andcreate a new entry with the user criterion and the selected character inthe cache.

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary process 900 for searching a database of aplurality of countdown animations to select a countdown animationassociated with the identified character incorporating embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Process 900 may use the character identified byprocess 800 to search for an animation.

At block 902, control circuitry 304 retrieves alert text and thecountdown time. In some embodiments, alert text may have been entered asa part of user preferences by parents and/or guardians using user inputinterface 310. For example, alert text may include alert text 504. Insome embodiments, alert text may be optional. Countdown time may be thetime determined by process 700. Countdown time may describe the amountof time remaining in the user selected period.

At block 904, control circuitry 304 searches a database for animationassociated with the character and the alert text or countdown time. Insome embodiments, the database may be stored in a remote location suchas media content source 416 or media guidance data source 418 andaccessed through communications network 414. In some embodiments, thedatabase may be stored locally using storage circuitry 308. The databasemay store one or more animations for each character. For example, forthe character “Dora,” the database may include one animation to be usedwhen less than ten minutes remain in the countdown, and one animation tobe used when more than ten minutes remain in the countdown. In anotherexample, for the character “Dora,” the database may include oneanimation to be used when the alert text is associated with “homeworktime,” and one animation to be used when the alert text is associatedwith “mealtime.” Metadata associated with each animation may describeinformation about its associated character, alert text, and/or countdowntime. In some embodiments, the database may also include defaultanimations to be used when animations associated with a character, alerttext, or countdown time cannot be found.

Control circuitry 304 may search the database by comparing thecharacter, alert text, and countdown time with the metadata associatedwith each animation. Control circuitry 304 may iterate through allanimations until a match is found.

At block 906, control circuitry 304 determines whether an animation wasfound. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may determine a matchwas found if an animation has metadata matching the identifiedcharacter, alert text, and countdown time. In some embodiments, controlcircuitry 304 may determine a match was found if an animation hasmetadata matching one of the identified character, alert text, orcountdown time. If control circuitry 304 determines a match was found,process 900 proceeds to block 908. If control circuitry 304 determines amatch was not found, process 900 proceeds to block 910.

At block 908, control circuitry 304 selects a generic animation. In someembodiments, a generic advertisement may be associated with at least oneof the identified character, alert text, or countdown time. In someembodiments, the generic animation may be associated with none of theidentified character, alert text, or countdown time. In someembodiments, control circuitry 304 may use communications network 414 tosend a message to a server that an animation was not found, so theserver can collect statistics about situations in which animations werenot found. The message to the server may include the identifiedcharacter, alert text, and countdown time.

At block 910, control circuitry 304 uses the found animation. In someembodiments, control circuitry 304 may download the found animation froma remote server using communications network 414 and store it locallyusing storage circuitry 308. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304may generate for display the found animation using display 312. In someembodiments, control circuitry 304 may generate for display alert textand/or the countdown time with the animation, as described in relationto FIG. 5.

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary process 1000 for generating for display theselected countdown animation simultaneously with the media contentincorporating embodiments of this disclosure. The countdown animationmay have been selected using process 900.

The countdown animation may be associated with a character identifiedusing process 800. Control circuitry 304 may continuously update thecountdown amount of time using process 700 during process 1000.

At block 1002, control circuitry 304 compares a threshold time and thecountdown amount of time. For example, control circuitry 304 maydetermine the countdown amount of time is eight minutes. This mayrepresent the amount of time left in the viewing limit and may becomputed using process 700. Control circuitry may retrieve a thresholdtime that is 10 minutes. The threshold amount of time may ensure thatthe countdown is only shown when the threshold amount of time remains inthe countdown, and not for the duration of the entire viewing limit. Forexample, control circuitry 304 may use the threshold amount of time toensure the countdown is only displayed during the last minute of theviewing limit period. Parents and/or guardians may be able to change thethreshold time using the user input interface 310 to enter new userpreferences.

At block 1006, control circuitry 304 may determine whether the countdownamount of time is less than or equal to the threshold time. If controlcircuitry 304 determines that the countdown of the amount of time isless than or equal to the threshold time, process 1000 proceeds to block1008. Otherwise, process 1000 returns to block 1002, and controlcircuitry 304 updates the countdown amount of time using process 700.

At block 1008, control circuitry 304 generates for display the countdownusing display 312. Control circuitry 304 may generate for display acountdown as shown in relation to FIG. 5.

At block 1010, control circuitry 304 determines whether the countdownamount of time is less than or equal to zero. If control circuitry 304determines the countdown amount of time is less than or equal to zero,process 1000 proceeds to block 1012. Otherwise, process 1000 returns toblock 1008.

At block 1012, control circuitry 304 ends the countdown. Controlcircuitry 304 may stop updating the countdown amount of time usingprocess 700. Control circuitry 304 also stops generating for display thecountdown. At block 1014, control circuitry 304 generates an alert box.For example, control circuitry 304 may generate for display an alert boxas shown in relation to FIG. 6. In some embodiments, the alert box mayinclude alert text. In some embodiments, the alert box may include anoption to enter a parental code to remove the alert box and resumeaccessing the media asset.

At block 1016, control circuitry 304 takes an action associated with thecountdown. The action may have been set by parents and/or guardians aspart of user preferences. For example, the action may include turningoff user devices currently being used by children, or user devicesassociated with the children. In some embodiments, the action mayinclude sending the parents and/or guardians a notification that thechildren have reached their viewing limits.

FIG. 11 shows an exemplary process 1100 for creating countdownanimations incorporating embodiments of the present disclosure. At block1102, control circuitry 304 generates a countdown of an amount of timeremaining in a user selected period of time for accessing media content,as shown in relation to process 700. The user selected period of timemay be the viewing limits set by the parents and/or guardians. Forexample, control circuitry 304 may determine that the current countdownamount of time is eight minutes. This may indicate eight minutes remainin the viewing limits set by the parents and/or guardians. Controlcircuitry may periodically execute process 700 to update the countdownamount of time.

At block 1104, control circuitry 304 identifies a character of aplurality of characters based on a user criterion, as shown in relationto process 800. For example, control circuitry 304 may determine thatthe children are currently watching the cartoon program “Dora theExplorer,” and identify the character “Dora” based on this usercriterion.

At block 1106, control circuitry 304 searches a database of a pluralityof countdown animations to select a countdown animation associated withthe identified character, as shown in relation to process 900. Forexample, control circuitry 304 may identify an animation associated withthe character “Dora” and a countdown time of less than ten minutes.Control circuitry 304 may retrieve this program from a remote serverusing communications network 414, and store it locally using storagecircuitry 308 for quick retrieval.

At block 1108, control circuitry 304 generates for display the selectedcountdown animation simultaneously with the media content, as shown inrelation to process 1000. For example, control circuitry 304 may outputon display 312 the animation identified at block 110. The media guidanceapplication may generate for display the animation associated with thecharacter “Dora” and a countdown time of less than ten minutes asdiscussed in relation to FIG. 5. Control circuitry 304 may also generatefor display alert text and/or the countdown of the amount of timeremaining in the user selected period. Control circuitry 304 may updatethe countdown time until it reaches zero, and then display an alert boxas shown in relation to FIG. 6.

It should be noted that processes 700-1100, or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, the optimization system on any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, processes 700-1100 may beexecuted by processing circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed byprocessing circuitry implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406(FIG. 4) in order to provide information to a user. In addition, one ormore steps of processes 700-1100 may be incorporated into or combinedwith one or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIGS. 7-11 may beused with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, thesteps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 7-11 may be donein alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed in anyorder or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag orincrease the speed of the system or method.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may beapplied to any other embodiment herein, and flowcharts or examplesrelating to one embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment ina suitable manner, done in different orders, or done in parallel. Inaddition, the systems and methods described herein may be performed inreal time. It should also be noted, the systems and/or methods describedabove may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systemsand/or methods.

1. A method of creating countdown animations, the method comprising:generating a countdown of an amount of time remaining in a user selectedperiod of time for accessing media content; identifying a character of aplurality of characters based on a user criterion; searching a databaseof a plurality of countdown animations to select a countdown animationassociated with the identified character; and generating for display theselected countdown animation simultaneously with the media content.2-50. (canceled)